In the design of semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs), placement and routing is a stage to determine the layout of an IC, which includes a geometric description of the location of each IC component, and the path of each wire connecting the IC components. In the placement and routing stage, placement is generally conducted before routing. Placement involves deciding where to place all IC components, circuitry and logic gates in a limited amount of space, and routing decides the exact design of all the wires needed to connect the placed components.
Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.